Friday, September 19, 2008

Stuffed Mushrooms

As I've mentioned before, I'm now in possession of two awesome grilling cookbooks, so this past summer I began experimenting with slapping whatever I could find down on the grill (ie-here and here). And to mostly good results, I mean, this is how we've been cooking things for thousands of years, right? How hard can it be? (I'm resisting a Geico caveman joke here, you're welcome).

I was feeling particularly adventurous one day, and I came across this recipe for stuffed mushrooms and zucchini. Basically you take the mushrooms stems and the scooped out insides of the zucchini, chop them up with some other things and make a stuffing. Once their insides are back in them, throw them on the grill. I found, however, that the zucchini didn't work so well on the grill. Their skins got tough and difficult to chew, while the insides were undercooked. So I simplified and decided to throw everything in the mushrooms, including entire zucchinis. The one downside is you tend to end up with an abundance of stuffing, but there are worse things.

I also learned that these can be roasted. The reason I know this is that one day, after preparing these tasty treats for the grill, well...let's just say there was some serious rain. I heard that roasting something at 400 is approximately the same (at least temperature-wise) as grilling it. So I gave it a shot and yay! It worked.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop finely. Heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the mushroom stems, zucchini, onion and garlic until tender and any liquid released from the mushrooms is evaporated. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine the vegetable mixture with the oregano, bread crumbs, and heavy cream. Add the bread crumbs and cream gradually, so as not to get too much of one or the other. The mixture should be moist, but stick together a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Brush the tops of the mushroom caps with olive oil and then fill them with the bread crumb mixture. The stuffing should form a heaping mound on top of the mushroom.

Roast (at 400) or grill mushrooms for approx 15 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with knife. If you are roasting them, sprinkle some more bread crumbs over the top before placing them in the oven. This should give them a slightly crispy top.